It is an answer, but it's not in English. Sometimes we use foreign words to convey things which the English language has no word for... so the fact it isn't in English is perhaps not a good enough reason to say it is a non-answer. There is nothing to stop anyone to use the downvote if the answer is bad or incorrect.
– Mari-Lou AJul 14 '18 at 22:45

@Mari-LouA I've upvoted your comment, but I think it deserves a more permanent spot as an answer.
– LawrenceJul 15 '18 at 11:52

3

I downvoted and voted to delete. This is a site for English and answers are supposed to be about English, offering English-language solutions, and written in English. The answer will go through the delete queue now, and if 2 other people agree with my assessment, the answer will be gone.
– Dan BronJul 15 '18 at 14:26

@Mari-LouA While I would normally agree with you about using loan words when a good English word is not available, I do not think this is the case here. "Yoke" (from Colin Fine) was in the the accepted answer, and while it has other, more modern connotations, it would seem to be a good choice.
– CascabelJul 15 '18 at 16:53

My intention was to help explain why the flag was disputed. Whether the answer is valid, good, or pertinent is a different matter.
– Mari-Lou AJul 15 '18 at 17:04

@Mari-LouA I think stuff from other languages has its place in answers, especially when it shows an influence on English. But what will stop the site from being flooded with answers in hundreds of different languages and dialects? There has to be some kind of limit.
– CascabelJul 15 '18 at 17:18

2 Answers
2

"Why was this flag disputed" is tough for anyone to answer but the person(s) involved, but I can address the underlying issue.

Flag answers for deletion only when they are not answers – they're actually new questions, spam, vandalism, so unintelligible that you can't tell what they are, etc. Specifically, when an entire post is written in a language other than English, it's fine to flag "not an answer" because it's unintelligible to the community it's posted on.

But when an answer is an answer, but it's wrong, not helpful, misleading, etc., don't flag for deletion. Downvote it. Remember, a downvoted answer is much more helpful to everybody that comes after than a deleted answer.

This answer post is clearly an answer, and it's in English. Any English speaker will easily see what the answer is. You might feel that it's not a helpful answer, because this site is not only in English but also about English and maybe you feel the asker wanted an English term. In that case use your downvote.

The fundamental principle on ELU is that askers want English answers. This isn’t a question, it’s an axiom, part of the foundational charter. Your answer here is the correct general answer. But for this specific case, the specific answer is “answers offering non-English solutions are not acceptable: this answer should be deleted for that reason”. And before anyone goes full pedant on me: yes I’m aware of loanwords. If they’ve made it into the English lexicon, they’re English, and appropriate as answers on the English language site ELU. The answer in question here is not a loanword.
– Dan BronJul 17 '18 at 20:35

Which is what makes the answer wrong, and a downvote the appropriate remedy. The other thing that factors into this is that an intelligible answer can still be so lacking in usefulness that it nets a negative vote score. At that point, the community has judged it not worth keeping, and it's fair game for direct deletion by high-rep users at their discretion. Deletion in that case does not require a flag.
– MetaEd♦Jul 17 '18 at 20:50

3

No, it makes the answer off-topic, or inappropriate, or misplaced. An answer that said "macroeconomics means that kind of bucket-carrying stick" would be wrong, and downvoteable. It's an attempt at an answer (supplying an English word to match the item sought), but it's a wrong answer, so -1 and move on. But this is a non-answer, just as "E = mc^2" would be. It should be deleted. It's out of place.
– Dan BronJul 17 '18 at 21:00

@Araucaria You dare! That question was “historically locked” as “a fun time we all remember but inappropriate for he site” :)
– Dan BronJul 25 '18 at 19:18

@DanBron Perhaps, then, there's room for an answer that doesn't fit the rules being preserved for posterity because it adds a little something or other, even if it's downvoted? :) (obviously this is not in the same league by a million miles ...) I have no strong view either way, but someone else seems to find the answer worthy of not obliterating ...
– AraucariaJul 25 '18 at 19:35

Or even flag and explain the decision in the comments (after all the answerer has invested time and is trying to be helpful) maybe something on the lines of: 'while interesting, this is not relevant to the question, so I've flagged it.' I think it could be a bit of a turn off for new users getting downvoted without knowing why. Having strict guidelines shouldn't exclude having a welcoming culture imo.
– S ConroyJul 29 '18 at 0:14

@SConroy **All that the "answer" needed was to post a comment saying "This is not an answer." Why blow the issue over? ** was my answer.
– KrisJul 30 '18 at 6:46

1

@Kris. Yes, I understood that and tended to agree. The rest was my own vague ramblings.
– S ConroyJul 30 '18 at 17:22

But people don't have the heart to accept the truth but prevail on their prejudices. Comfortable lies comfort.
– KrisJul 31 '18 at 6:04